The human body uses electricity to control signals between cells at about 0.1 volts, if you’ve ever been electrocuted by sticking a fork in the power socket and receiving a mighty 240 volts (2400 times more), you would know first hand that excess power is not fun, or possibly you don’t know as premature death can play havoc with the memory. Either way it’s a tough lesson to learn and one that most child coddling schools have stopped teaching. To help breach this knowledge gap we’ve compiled some simple lessons that will clear up some misunderstandings when it comes to electricity and surge protection.

Surge Protectors Conventional Wisdom

Power is Good

When we get a surge of power, it’s great because we can jump higher and run faster, and from there it may seem a logical leap that a power surge should make a computer faster too. Sadly this along with never being able to know what love feels like, is the major difference between us and computers as they will blow up. So make sure you never let anything over 300 volts get near it, as it won’t like it.

You Can’t Fight the Power

A power surge is an aggressive attack on your household electrical system, and while your surge protector will fight it, unfortunately it won’t send the surge back to where it came from while yelling out “That’s what I’m talking about?” No in reality, power surge protectors are pansies. All they want to do is disconnect your electronic devices like they’re women and children in a besieged medieval village, and lock them in the cellar. Which is good news as your computer will be safe from marauding electrons, but you’ll always be left wondering if your computer was tough enough to take on the surge by itself and win.

Homemade solution

A homemade lightning rod may seem like a smart cheap option to protect your electronics, but unfortunately protecting your house from personal lightning strikes isn’t good enough, because you’re connected to the grid, so any lightening strike in your area can still get to you.

Still as a means to protect your computer from a direct lightning strike through your computer room window, which is obviously highly probable, it would be quite handy indeed. However the neighbourhood beautification committee might have a few things to say about the 500 metal coat hangers you’ve join together and erected in your front yard, not to mention how much ironing you’d have to do from all your shirts being kept in drawers.

It’s Simple and Easy.

There was once a time when you would have to pull open your power box and use all the dexterity of an old fisherman to replace the thin metal wire that was the fuse. You no longer have to do this, as fancy new circuit breaker technology means that the connection can be reset with a mere flick of a switch. While this is certainly more convenient, it’s hard not to lament the fact that the majestic art of fuse wire replacement handed down from generation to generation is now slowly being lost to humanity.